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History

Description

The Genovevahöhle (Genevieve cave) is only one of several with the
same name.
But the tendency to name caves after Genevieve is
rather young, probably the names are a result of German Romantcism and the opera
of the same name by Robert Schumann.
Until the id 19th century the inhabitants of nearby Kordel called the cave
simply Kutbachhöhle, after the river below.
This cave was renamed by a bureaucrat form Mayen who was posted to Pfalzel.
He discovered the cave on a walk and remembered the legend of Genoveva.

Genoveva was the daughter of the Duke of Brabant, she
is also called Genoveva of Brabant.
She lived around 750 AD and was the wife of Palatine Siegfried of Trier.

One day Siegfried went to fight in a war.
On his return his butler Golo accused Genoveva of adultery.
Siegfried commands his vassals to kill her, but they
help her to flee.
While roaming the forest she discoveres the small cave and stays here.
Pregnant from her husband, she comes down in the cave with her son Schmerzensreich (painful).
Together they live in the cave for many years.

Six years later Siegfried learn about the inocence of
Genoveva.
He searches her and brings her back.
Golo is quadrisect for his betrayal.

Legend after cappucine monk Martin von Cochem around
1640

The legend of Genoveva is most likely fictitious, the
are no hisoric documents.
The original version of the legend is attributed to the cappucine monk Martin von Cochem who is said to have written it around
1640.
However, there are other sources telling the legend was from 1687.
Later the legend became part of a collection of legends, and also the brothers
Grimm included the legend into the collection Deutsche Sagen (1816) after a source from 1612.
In 1834 Ludwig Tieck wrote Genoveva and in 1841
Friedrich Hebbel wrote Genoveva.
Finally Robert Schumann created his only opera
(Genoveva, 1850) based on this two dramas.
This made this story rather famous, and there were no doubts about its
authenticity.

This cave is a natural cave in sandstone, formed by the erosion of the Kyll
river.
Its form depends on the structure of the rock, as the water eroded the softer
layers much faster than the harder layers.
The Kyll was cutting through the old landscape forming a steep valley.
As the river flew at the level of the cave it was washed out by the flowing
water.
But the river continued to cut in and today it flows much deeper.

The cave was used as a shelter since the Palaeolithic (between 16,000 and 12,000
BC).
The visiotrs were hunters or herdsmen.
The cave was never used continually, but it was visited over millennia.
In hisoric times it was used by hermits and refugees, who were looking for
shelter.
The result of this use are numerous artificial alterations in the cave, like
steps and benches along the wall which were cut into the rock.
But beneath the traces in the rock, there were no archaeologic remains found in
this cave.